About this title: Updike's 11th collection of short stories contains 22 evocative, well-crafted tales of aging men, and their wives, in whom the approach of death provokes painful insights and extraordinary behavior.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780679435839ISBN:0679435832
Description: Good in good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 336 p. Ex-Library expected imperfections. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780679435839ISBN:0679435832
Description: Good in Good jacket. First Edition. 107-U Ex-library. Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Fawcett
Date Published: 1995-09-27
ISBN-13:9780449223918ISBN:0449223914
Description: Very Good. *** Paperback in Very Good-condition. Binding tight, pages clean. No previous owner names. Cover opens widely, some edgewear. *** read more
"First the positive: John Updike definitely knew how to use words to evoke mental pictures and feelings of all kinds in the reader. The detailed beauty of his words made you see objects and situations in a new light.
Now the puzzling: Updike was in his 60's when this book was published, so I assume that these stories were written at about that time in his life. Yet nearly every story included adulterous, divorced, remarried (and remarried) characters who seemed to enjoy nothing about the middle-aged stage of life except getting rid of the current wife. And what's with the story about the divorced dad who came back to visit his young adult son, discovers the son had been bitten by infected ticks and may well have Lyme's Disease, and his one thought is that "he had got out just in time" - WHAT?! Yet Updike dedicated this book to two "newcomers to this life" - his grandchildren?
And the negative: Out of 22 short stories in this collection, I found only 4 that had anything about 'the particular wonders' of life beyond middle-age. The rest were very depressing tales of very self-centered people."
"When John Updike recently passed away, he wrote a poem suggesting that the world would forget him.
After his life, I read the Afterlife and found that despite death, the human echo can be as meaningful as the words spoke when the voice was alive. (barf).
Regardless, Updike crafts a short story collection that hits home in almost every piece. Almost all dealing with adultery, some with mommy/son issues, and some with death (none about the actual afterlife), Updike's stories often make one pause, look up from their book, and think.
What really gets you about this book is Updike's prose style. He writes his stories very simplistically, in the sense that there is no high drama or striking twists and turns. Rather, his narratives are brief glimpses in people's lives that jump quickly through years and facts as if they were matters-of-facts. His word play and discriptions of hard-to-discribe things are impecable.
For instance, the dentist: that feeling of a loose and wiggling tooth; Updike discribes it as a painful tickle. Arrowhead accurate if you ask me.
This book of stories was a delight to read from start to finish."
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